Biography
Filmography
Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle (1975) (voice) (1979 American dubbed version)
Animal House (1978)
The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978)
Goin' South (1978)
Old Boyfriends (1979)
1941 (1979)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Continental Divide (1981)
Neighbors (1981)
Trivia
In the toga party scene in the basement of the frat in Animal House, the uncredited coed dancing with Bluto (Belushi) is his wife.
Belushi wanted Bluto to go on the road trip with Boon, Otter, Pinto and Flounder but director John Landis told him that his character was best used sparingly.
According to the "Where Are They Now? - A Delta Alumni Update" mockumentary included on the Double Secret Probation Edition of Animal House, Sen. John Blutarsky and his lovely wife, the former Mandy Pepperidge, have ascended to the White House.
According to writer/actor Tim Kazurinsky in the book Live From New York, Belushi was instrumental in getting fellow Second City alumni Kazurinsky onto Saturday Night Live. But during his run on the show, Kazurinsky became very stressed out by the show's demands. He later called Belushi and said that he needed a ride to the airport because he was quitting the show and moving back to Chicago. Belushi and his wife refused to drive him to the airport, at which Belushi told Kazurinsky that the show's atmosphere can get bad at times, but that he still had access to major broadcasting airwaves. Instead, Belushi took the performer to a psychiatrist whom he saw for a year, while staying with the show during his run.
He was portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, Tyler Labine in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy which also features his friendship with Robin Williams and Michael Chiklis in Wired. The last two films may not have portrayed the comic actor in the best light as they particularly highlight his drug use.
Posters of Belushi as Bluto from Animal House in his signature "College" sweater (as well as replicas of the sweaters themselves) remain ubiquitous on college campuses as of 2005.
Chris Farley, another drug-abusing overweight comedian who died at age 33, was an admirer of Belushi.
The 1981 Halloween episode aired on October 31st with Donald Pleasence and musical guest FEAR. By personal favor/request from Fear fan John Belushi the band performed because Belushi promised them a spot after they failed to make the final cut (movie studio refusal) as musical composers in his movie 1941. The band proceeded to play offensive music and bussed in "dancers" (many were in well-known East Coast punk acts). The band used obscene language and the dancers destroyed the set with slam dancing on the stage. The end result was Fear were banned from playing and their actual performance was cut short; as they played "Let's Have a War" the audio and video cut to commercial.
In an interview with the drummer from Fear Spit Stix, Stix explained Belushi hadn't been on SNL for years, but "for the show that we were on, he did make an appearance. In the beginning, he's at the urinal and he turns around to the camera, 'Live! From New York!' That was a favor he did for us because during rehearsal some of our crowd - bussed-in slamdancers - tripped over a cable or something and the union people didn't want any dancers. So as a trade-off, he went up to Grant Tinker's office for us and said, 'I'll make an appearance on the show if the dancers stay.' John was such a generous guy."
Belushi was good friends with fellow SNL player Dan Aykroyd, whom Belushi personally recruited for SNL. They met in a Toronto speak easy called The 505 that Aykroyd frequented and during their discussion over Aykroyd possibly joining SNL, he put on a blues record in the back ground. John and Dan immediately hit it off and became friends right on the spot and, additionally, the blues music Aykroyd had playing in the background sparked a fascination with blues music in Belushi, who, though a Chicago native himself, was primarily a fan of heavy metal. Dan educated John on the finer points of blues music, and this led to the creation of their popular Blues Brothers characters.
Belushi started the 'Blues brothers bar' as it was known down the street from The Second City in the 1970's.
John and his friend Dan Aykroyd were slated to present the first ever Visual Effects Award in 1982, but John died a few weeks prior to the event. Though devastated by John's death, Aykroyd presented the award alone, commenting on the stage "My partner would have loved to have been here to present this award, given that he was something of a visual effect himself."
The role of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984) was originally written with John in mind. After he died, the part was rewritten for fellow Saturday Night Live player Bill Murray. John's friend Dan Aykroyd, who wrote the Ghostbusters screenplay, used to joke that the green ghost Slimer was "the ghost of John Belushi", given that he was played with a similar party animal personality.
John Belushi had a song written about him by the Polish rock group 'Lady Pank'. The song appears on the album 'Tacy Sami'.
John is mentioned in the song "As John Belushi Said" by the british cult band Television Personalities.
John is mentioned in a song by rapper Copywrite. The line goes:"Any crew you with is full of shit till the bullets hit when the oozie spit,I write more lines than the late John Belushi sniffed "
Famous Saturday Night Live characters
Beethoven
Samurai Futaba
Bumblebee man
'Joliet' Jake Blues
Joe Cocker
Dino de Laurentiis
Greek Restaurant Owner
The Godfather
Elizabeth Taylor
Captain Kirk
Sources - Hill, Doug and Weingrad, Jeff, "Saturday Night - A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live", Beech Tree Books / William Morrow, New York, 1986
The Best of the National Lampoon Radio Hour, liner notes by McConnachie, Brian and Simmons, Matty, Rhino Records, California, 1996.
Shales, Tom and Miller, James Andrew, "Live From New York - An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live", Little, Brown and Company, Boston, New York, London, 2002
National Lampoon's Animal House - Double Secret Probation Edition DVD release, Universal Studios, California, 2003.
